Joy of Digital Award: Vodafone’s ‘Elf & Seek’

“Vodafone’s campaign embodies two of the things I love most about this time of year: playing games with loved ones and the joy of receiving presents. Sure it doesn’t feature my third favourite thing, but it would have been tricky to incorporate a four-course Christmas dinner into the creative and not lose the focus of the messaging”, explained Joy, IAB UK’s Chief Digital Cheerleader. 

The award has been created to celebrate campaigns that embody Joy’s overarching mission to rediscover the joy of digital advertising, demonstrating an ingenious use of online media. 

Commenting on why Vodafone’s campaign stood out, Joy continued: “With Elf and Seek, Vodafone and Dentsu blend the interactivity of AR with social activations and the broadcast nature of digital out-of-home. The result is bold, joyful and a little bit magic. A very worthy winner of the first award and huge congratulations to the team - keep bringing the joy.”

Vodafone’s 2023 Christmas campaign sees thousands of digital elves hidden in ads around the country, utilising AR to encourage people to engage with the creative and win prizes. It has been created by Denstu UK&I, with Chris Davey, Dentsu Creative UK’s Head of Creative describing it as “a perfect example of how brands can move into the gaming space in a way that consumers will find instantly engaging and rewarding”. You can read more about it via Little Black Book. 

The Joy of Digital Award will be presented monthly, with the next announcement in January 2024. Find out more about how Joy is helping advertisers to rediscover the joy of digital here.

Check out Vodafone's 'Elf & Seek' campaign on TikTok.